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The full text of “The First 10 Practices”, from the Vol 2 — Summer 2026 issue.
Page 24THE FIRST 10 PRACTICES NEED A STORY Every practice should have a purpose, but the first ten should also connect to one another. Practice Two should not feel like a separate event from Practice One, and Practice Three should not introduce something the first two did not prepare players to handle. The team should feel itself building. Early practices teach language, alignment, tempo and standards. Middle practices add contact, decision-making and situational football.
Later practices create competition, evaluation and game-like pressure. Players learn better when the staff knows where the week is going.
The whole progression on one page: Practices Theme Emphasis What the staff learns 1–2 Organization and language Tempo, alignment, communication, transitions, substitution standards Whether the team can operate 3–4 Base identity The runs, throws, fits and coverages the team must own; special teams introduced Whether base calls hold up at speed 5–6 Controlled contact and competition Inside run, protection, tackling circuits, goal-line fundamentals, coverage fits Who keeps his technique when contact arrives 7–8 Situational football Third down, red zone, backed up, goal line, two-minute, sudden change, four-minute What the team can handle under game conditions 9–10 Evaluation and game operation Signals, personnel groups, sideline, special teams alerts, evaluation periods Who is ready for more and who still needs protection BY AFQ STAFF A lot of coaches plan the first practice.
Championship staffs plan the first ten. Practice One matters—it sets the tone, introduces tempo, shows players how organized the staff is and creates the first impression of camp—but it is only the beginning. The first ten practices decide how the team learns, how the staff installs, how players handle fatigue, how competition is introduced and how quickly the program moves from teaching football to playing it. If those practices are not connected, camp becomes a grind.
If they are built with purpose, camp becomes a progression. Camp should be demanding. It should not be random. Camp should not be a grind by accident. It should be a progression by design. Designing Camp So Your Team Peaks Instead Of Survives
Page 25Practices 1–2: Organization and Language The first two practices should answer basic questions. Can we line up? Can we communicate? Can we transition, practice at the tempo we want and understand the language? This is not the time to show the whole playbook. It is the time to make sure the team knows how to operate: practice tempo, huddle mechanics or no-huddle procedure, formation alignment, defensive communication, special teams organization, substitution standards, period transitions and effort expectations.
The first two days should feel clean—not easy, clean. A sloppy beginning usually becomes a stressful camp. Before players can execute the system, they have to understand how to operate inside it. Practices 3–4: Base Identity By the third and fourth practices, the team should begin building identity. What do you have to be good at? Offensively, that may be inside zone, power, quick game, play-action or perimeter screens.
Defensively, it is base fits, pursuit, tackling angles, coverage communication and pressure rules. Special teams should be introduced with the same seriousness as either. Resist the temptation to install too many answers. The goal is not to look multiple; it is to look confident. If the team cannot execute base calls at speed, adding calls will not solve the problem. It will hide the problem until Friday night. Practices 5–6: Controlled Contact and Competition Once contact increases, everything changes.
Some players get better, and some get smaller. The staff needs to know both. Introduce controlled physicality: inside run, perimeter block-and-fit periods, pass protection, tackling circuits, goal-line fundamentals, special teams fit and coverage work, and competitive one-on-one or group periods. The word controlled matters. You do not need chaos to evaluate toughness. You need clear drills with clear standards. Who keeps his technique when contact arrives? Who communicates after being hit?
Who finishes, who avoids contact and who rises? Contact does not just reveal toughness. It reveals truth. Practices 7–8: Situational Football By the second half of the first ten practices, situational football should become the priority. Too many teams wait until game week to teach situations, and that is too late.
Players need reps in third-and-short and third-and-long, the red zone, backed-up offense, the goal line, two-minute, sudden change, punt after an offensive failure, field goal after a quick change and the four-minute offense. Situations teach players how the game actually feels, and they teach coaches what the team can handle. A team may execute a concept in an individual period and fail when down, distance, clock, field position and pressure are added. Football is not played in isolated drills.
It is played in moments.
Page 26Practices 9–10: Evaluation and Game Operation The last two practices of the first ten should bring the operation together. The team should start to look like a game team: coaches signaling clearly, personnel groups organized, special teams alert, substitutions clean, players understanding sideline expectations, communication improving and the staff developing a real feel for the roster.
Build in evaluation periods—not just “who made a play?” but assignment reliability, communication, conditioning under football stress, special teams value, response after mistakes, physical readiness and leadership. This is when the staff begins shaping the real depth chart, based not on what players looked like in shorts but on what they can handle when football starts feeling like football. The first ten practices should tell you who is ready for more and who still needs protection.
DO NOT OVERLOAD THE TEAM The biggest enemy of early camp is overload. Coaches want to install, players want to compete and everyone feels urgency, but too much too soon creates slow players. A player who is thinking through every step cannot play fast. The staff should keep asking: Are we teaching or just adding? Are players improving or surviving? Are the mistakes new or repeated? Are we practicing the game or just running periods? Are we building confidence or creating panic? More is not always better.
Better is better. Ten calls the team trusts beat thirty it has to think about. FINAL THOUGHT The first ten practices are not just a camp opening. They are the foundation of the season. They teach the team how to practice and players how to compete. They reveal leadership, shape the depth chart, expose staff organization and decide whether the team enters the season confident or overloaded. Plan them like they matter, because they do. A team should not simply survive the first ten practices.
It should come out of them knowing who it is becoming.
